


Prom prince

by floatingaway4



Series: For Better or For Worse [1]
Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, Schmoop, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25934623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floatingaway4/pseuds/floatingaway4
Summary: The evening of the election, exploring Alex's old house.
Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor
Series: For Better or For Worse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1902274
Comments: 25
Kudos: 198





	Prom prince

**Author's Note:**

> I started this a while back but just recently figured out how to finish it...it's really less about the plot and more of an excuse to write fluff. It's not my fault Henry is a poet and they're both romantics. 
> 
> Thanks to allmylovesatonce for the assist on this one!
> 
> I'm in the process of stringing some of my related stories together as a series, so I don't keep having to explain the background information :-) So this story now has...sort of a sequel.

Alex flicks a light switch, wondering. He’d called and left a message with their neighbor, asking whether the generator could be turned on temporarily while they were in town, but he’d never heard back. Win or lose, he’d hoped to have a chance to bring Henry here.

To his mild surprise, the lights come on. There are a lot of burnt out bulbs though, which leaves most of the house in shadows anyway. He hangs his bomber on a peg near the door and gestures for Henry to do the same with his suit jacket. 

Alex just lets Henry roam around the front rooms, his impossibly long legs moving slowly through doorways, over creaky spots in the floor. Reverently reaching up to touch a door jamb, pulling his hand back, then reaching again, as though he suddenly remembered he’s not in a museum. He turns to Alex, one side of his mouth lifting in a grin, like he can’t quite believe they’re here, that this place actually exists. Henry raises his eyebrows in a question and Alex answers with a beckoning tilt of his head. 

Henry follows Alex down the long hallway and into his childhood bedroom. Henry walks around this room slowly too, taking everything in. The bare mattress, the desk with a little study lamp, and abandoned stacks of books and notebooks. The empty closet with accordion doors. Three shelves filled with sports and academic trophies, some draped with medals on colorful ribbons. A wall of framed certificates. 

When Henry breaks the silence, it seems almost sacrilegious. “It’s like the archives of a museum. All the important, foundational things the public doesn't get to see.” Alex smiles and walks over to take Henry’s hand and lean into his arm. 

On top of the shelves, there’s a gold plastic crown, inset with obviously fake, candy-colored jewels, a red velvet band around the bottom. Alex blushes as Henry picks it up. “Prom king,” he says sheepishly. 

“I’m sorry, how did this never come up before?” Henry laughs. He turns away from Alex to blow the dust off and plops it on his head. Alex gives him an appraising look, removes it and puts it on his own head. “Looks better on me.” 

“It does, your royal highness,” Henry says with a little bow and a flourish of his hand that makes Alex’s stomach flip. He keeps thinking you can’t fall more in love with someone, but Henry keeps proving him wrong. 

“I’ve only seen it in American TV shows and movies,” Henry says. “How does one--?” He gestures toward Alex’s crown. 

“Vote, your classmates vote,” Alex grins, “and then they announce the winner at the dance.” 

“Ah, a democratically elected king. I’m not really sure how I feel about that,” Henry tells him with a gleam in his eye. 

With his free hand, Henry reaches for the pictures propped up against one of the larger trophies. One is a picture of Alex’s lacrosse team and the other is his individual photo. He bites his lip as he slides the photo from the paper frame and tucks it into his pocket. “I’m keeping this.” Alex just nods and laughs and kisses him. He’d give Henry anything. 

Alex leaves his crown on the desk. He shows Henry the rest of the house and they end up back in the living room just as the last bulb in the ceiling fixture blows out. Faint moonlight shines through the bay window.

Henry turns to face Alex and pulls out his phone. “Do you want to see the house?” He starts scrolling, searching. “I thought maybe you could come up on weekends, or whenever you’re not working--”

“Actually, I have something to tell you too, babe.” Alex smiles at him, his face all crinkles and dimples and Henry can’t tear himself away to go back to his phone. He looks at Alex expectantly. “What, love?” 

Alex shrugs his shoulders and blows out a deep breath. “I applied to law school.” 

Henry’s face lights up. “Law school? That’s wonderful. You’d make an amazing….wait. Where? At Georgetown?”

Alex shakes his head. 

Henry looks worried and Alex can’t figure out why. “Where?” 

“New York. NYU and Columbia. NYU is my first--” 

Henry looks stunned, then sweeps Alex off the ground into a hug. Alex holds on tight and feels Henry start to laugh. “I was so afraid you were going to say California or Texas or, okay, those are all the states I can think of.” He whispers into Alex’s ear, so quietly Alex isn’t even sure if he means to say it out loud, “We really did win.” 

Alex pulls back so he can look Henry in the eye and wriggles until his feet are back on the ground. “Baby,” he whispers, and he can’t come up with anything else to say. He just shakes his head and kisses Henry, with Henry’s arms wrapped around him so tight he almost can’t breathe. Alex finally finds words and mutters them against Henry’s lips, “I’m not going anywhere.” 

They both register the fact that they can live together, not just in the same time zone but in the same house, and stare at each other in awed silence. Their next kiss is sweeter and slower and so relieved and happy that Alex’s eyes are wet when he pulls away. “Hey,” he clears his throat and gestures toward Henry’s phone, “Let me see this house.” 

He pulls Henry to the window seat. Henry leans back on one side, against the angled wall, and drops one foot to the floor. Alex sits between Henry’s legs and leans back against his chest while he scrolls through pictures on the phone. When he’s not pointing to something on the screen, Henry’s roving hands are stroking Alex’s stomach or playing in his hair. Henry reaches around to click on a link to show him the street view, and explains it’s a few minutes walk from the shelter. It has four floors and a garage. In Brooklyn. Henry skims quickly past the listing information but Alex knows this place was not cheap. 

“Henry, how do you want me to...do you want me to pay the utilities or--” 

Henry interrupts him. “You don’t have to, it’s fine.” He squeezes his arms around Alex. 

Alex lets the hand holding the phone drop to his lap. “H, I can’t just let you pay for everything.” 

Henry doesn’t speak for so long that Alex turns his head to look at him. His brow is furrowed and his mouth is pinched. Alex hates that he ruined their mood.

“Alex,” he pauses, “I can afford it because my father...because I have the money my father left me. This is what I want to use it for, to have a place outside the palace to live my life openly. I understand if you want to contribute in some way, but I also wish you would let me do this for us.” 

Alex is quiet. He’s not completely conceding, but he’s willing to drop it for now. He nods and presses a kiss onto Henry’s cheek. “Okay, babe.” He twists enough to look Henry in the eye. “Thank you.” 

Alex enlarges a few of the images so he can see the details. He has noticed so many of the same little features Henry loved when he first saw the pictures. He’d flown over secretly to look at it once before he signed the final papers, and he’d loved it even more. Watching Alex fall in love with the same parts of his--no, _their_ \--house, is almost too much to bear. 

Alex holds up the phone. “I love the windows in the front. Hey, I get another bay window.” 

Henry kisses the back of Alex’s neck and then hooks his chin over his shoulder. “Mmhmm. You can’t hide your lists there, there’s no window seat now, but maybe we could add one.” Even though Alex has been saying positive things about every room, Henry still feels the need to hesitantly ask, “You like it?” 

Alex twists his head around to kiss Henry on the cheek again. “I love it, sweetheart. I love all of it.” He turns completely around and sits on his knees, resting his hands on Henry’s broad shoulders. “I love that I get to live with you.” Henry has seen Alex happy, but he doesn’t think he has ever seen him this happy. He knows it's partly the election results, but he’d like to think it’s a little bit about him. 

Alex flips around and leans back against the other wall, his legs twined with Henry’s, so they can face each other. 

Since they started texting, all those months ago, they’ve never really stopped talking. And they don’t stop now. With the Austin night sky looking down on them, they talk about their future. Moving to New York, the shelter, law school, marriage, children. Nothing is off limits, but neither is anything set in stone, save for the fact that they will make all of these decisions together. 

And from now on, they will not make them out of fear. 

After a while, Alex raises a finger and stands up. “Be right back.” 

Henry shakes his head hard after Alex walks out of the room, desperately trying to stay awake. He doesn’t want this day to ever end. 

Alex comes back from his room with a piece of notebook paper, a paperback English/Spanish dictionary, and a yellow pencil. “Pens are all dried up,” he explains. He leans sideways against Henry and puts the dictionary on his lap to use as a writing surface. Even as tired as he is, Henry can’t help but bury his nose in his hair and inhale Alex’s scent. 

Alex turns to look at him. “You know I made a lot of lists to plan out my life. What I had to do to get into the right college, so I could get the right job, have a good life, make my parents proud, all that shit. I also made lists of my priorities, it helped me when I was having trouble making decisions. ” 

Henry nods, planting a kiss on Alex’s temple. He slumps a little and makes himself comfortable, assuming Alex is about to write down most of the things they just talked about. Instead, to his surprise, Alex writes:

  1. I love you
  2. Everything else 



Alex smiles at Henry. “Anything you want to add, your Highness?” Henry shakes his head slowly, still marveling at the very thought that he gets to have this man in his life. 

Alex shoves the paper under the cushion, stirring up a puff of dust that makes him sneeze. He leans into Henry again, who wraps one arm around him and snakes the other hand up to play in Alex’s hair. All at once, sudden, total exhaustion slams into Alex. “Let’s go to the hotel. I can’t sleep here, it’s too dusty and also we might freeze to death.” Neither of them have the energy to even think about biking back. 

Alex scoops his phone from his pocket without moving from his warm nest. “Remember when you asked me what I’d do if I was just a normal person in the world?” 

Henry nods. “Of course.” 

“Well, a normal person would get an Uber. But one, we are not fucking normal, babe. And two, I want to make out with you in the back seat and I’m not letting some rando record us. That shit would be streaming online before we got back to the hotel.” 

Alex calls Cash and has to hold the phone away from his ear while he gets yelled at. “I’ll text you the address,” Alex tells him, and hangs up mid-rant. 

“How long do you think?” Henry asks. 

Alex shrugs. “Fifteen, twenty minutes. We need to put the bikes out back. I told Liam they’d be there.” 

Henry nudges Alex up as he pulls out his own phone again. “Okay, but can we do something first?” He hits his screen a few times and “Stay With Me” comes from the little speaker. Henry stands too and reaches for Alex’s hand. “I’ve never danced with a prom king.” 

Alex moves easily into Henry’s arms. “You have, actually, you just weren’t aware of my title.” Alex looks up, “I’m not wearing the crown.” 

They sway in a circle, in the dark, so tired they’re holding each other up more than dancing. “Does this make me the prom queen?” Henry asks. 

“My prom prince,” Alex decides, sleepily, his voice muffled where his mouth is pressed into Henry's chest. "We'll make that a thing. Hey, isn't this song about--"

"Shhh," Henry insists. "I still like it." 

A black SUV pulls up exactly 18 minutes later and screeches to a stop in the street. Alex doesn’t know the driver but sees a supremely pissed off Cash get out of the passenger seat. 

As they leave, Alex doesn’t see Henry pull the scrap of paper out and shove it quickly into his pocket. 

He doesn’t see it again until months later, when he’s moved into their home. It’s his second full day there. He’s just back from a run and standing in the kitchen guzzling water. Henry’s itinerary for the month is on one side of the refrigerator door and Alex’s is on the other. Centered above them both, under a Union Jack magnet, is his list. 

Above everything else. 

Henry walks in and sees him staring. “Hello, darling. What are you doing?” He follows Alex’s gaze and opens his mouth like he’s about to explain. 

Alex turns to him and presses his sweaty body into Henry’s, wrapping him in his arms. “Loving you.” He leans up for a kiss, unable to hide the delight in his voice. “You kept it.” 

Henry nods. “Was that okay? I just couldn't leave it there.” 

Alex nods happily. “It’s very okay, baby.” He gives Henry a devilish smile. “Now, what rooms do we still need to christen?” 

Henry laughs. “I’ve lost track. You’re the list maker, my love.”


End file.
